Sunday, August 22, 2010

What's the New?

Is anyone else as tired of the construction

X is the new Y

as I am?

Having said that, I keep running into ones that stimulate thought.

A few weeks ago I read or heard that "Meat is the new tobacco." This must refer to attitudes to users in certain social circles. I frankly thought meat was making a come back in the politically correct wars. And I think meat, unlike tobacco/nicotine, is neither physically addictive nor a good pain killer.

Speaking of meat, here's another one I read in a recent newspaper food pages article. "Preserving is the new bacon." There was that phase where bacon appeared in everything - it's not just for the full cooked breakfast and southern vegetables anymore! It found its way into commercial mayo and even desserts. I figured when it started appearing on fast food chicken sandwiches it was starting to wane in fascination for foodies. Apparently, for those who like to play in the kitchen, preserving is now in the ascendancy of fun activities. Never mind a necessity if your gardening activity level is up and your income down and you want to eat mostly local year round.

Finally, in the book Public Produce by Darrin Nordahl, a quotation from Andres Duany, new urbanist architect: "Agriculture is the new golf." What fun to think about community gardens and common farms replacing golf courses in suburban subdivisions.

1 comment:

John Leech said...

Meat is the new tobacco - makes sense in certain contexts. Cousin Eliza showed me the family farm - she and her husband had taken it out of tobacco production but the cousin who bought it from them went right back into it. You could see swaths of brown where herbicides had drifted in the wind. Too much intervention, too many chemicals - herbicides, pesticides. Bleah. Translates well to factory-style beef production.

Cellphones are the new cigarette packs (and lighters) however. I think they gave people something to do with their hands - a market niche that Zippo and Camel used to fill is now filled by Nokia and LG